The Life of Thomas Cooper: Written by Himself

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Contents

CHAPTER

I. CHILDHOOD: LEICESTER, EXETER, GAINSBOROUGH : 1805 —

II. BOYHOOD: THOMAS MILLER : 181I — 1814

Chapter II

boyhood: THOMAS MILLER: l8ll— 1814.

As our new house fronted the street, the boxes my mother made were exposed for sale in the little bowwindow, and she had greater publicity for her dyeing business. The coppers were now set in a back room, and thus the front room was kept neat and clean. Our new habitation was one of the four, the back doors of which opened into a close square of small dwellings called "Sailors' Alley." In this square resided the mother of Thomas Miller. He was about two years younger than myself, but was stronger and healthier, and now became my playmate. We lived in the house in front of Sailors' Alley till January 1816 ; and Miller and I were more or less together daily, till that time. On account of my feeble state of health, my mother ceased sending me to aged Gatty's school ; and when I began to grow stronger, I felt unwilling to return to a dame's school. Besides, there was a report that a large new Free School was about to be built ; and as Miller's mother purposed sending him thither, my mother jilso had me placed on the list of applicants to be scholars. The school was not opened till August,

' SUNDAY SCHOOL AND PREACHERS. 1}

1813 ; but in the meantime I was sent to the Methodist Sunday school. My mother had frequently taken me with her to the Methodist chapel, from the time that I was able to walk about, after that year of diseases ; but now I was taken with the other Sunday scholars, regularly, to the chapel, on Sunday mornings. I can recall the face and figure and manner of the preachers I heard in those very early years : quaint-looking Joseph Pretty ; and gentlemanly John Doncaster; a,ndj/oun£',dry, solemn-looking and solemnpreaching Isaac Keeling — (he was equally dry when he was old, but ' he had a rare canister of brains,' as an old, intelligent Methodist used to say of him) ; — 3ind young', fervid, and seemingly-inspired John Hannah; and hearty, plain, original, and often-eccentric John Farrar.

When the new Free School opened, I had to leave the Methodist Sunday School, for my mother had succeeded in getting me made a " Bluecoat " scholar ; and boys on that foundation were compelled to attend the parish church twice on Sundays. Miller, I may observe, was not a Bluecoat, but a " White Hart " boy. These were the names of two charities left by deceased Gainsborough gentry, for the education of poor children. Bluecoat boys were allowed a coat and cap, blue with yellow trimmings, yearly. White Hart boys had simply their education.

The system of Bell and Lancaster, or the ' monitorial/ was pursued in the new school ; and the course

14 FREE SCHOOL AND CHRISTMAS TIME.

of instruction was limited to reading the Scriptures, writing, and the first four rules of arithmetic, simple and compound. Our frequent practice in spelling, and the working, over and over, of the four introductory rules q{ arithmetic, formed at least, a good preparation for larger acquirements. I liked the school, and, above all, I liked the grand organ at the church, the stately church itself, and the stately service.

The day after Christmas Day was a high day with us as Bluecoat boys. We then received our yearly new coat and cap, at the house of Dr. Parnell. " Gervase Parnell, Esquire," was his full name and title ; and a finer specimen of the old-fashioned gentleman, with powdered head and tail, and his gold-headed cane, you would nowhere see. When we had received our new dresses at his house, he presented us with twopence each ; and then away we went in procession to collect our " Christmas-boxes." We used to begin with Mr. Sandars, the corn-merchant, whose house was nearest the bridge; and then went through the town to Morton, calling at the houses of the merchants and gentry, whose names of Furley, and Etherington, and-Torr, and Morehouse, and Barnard, and Garfitt, and Flowers, and Coats, and Metcalfe, and Smith, and Dealtry, and Brightmore, are far more familiar to me, now sixty years have passed away, since I first knew them, than any names that I learned but yesterday. Our last call in the town was upon the Rev. Mr. Fothergill, the vicar ; and then away we went to Mor-

GAINSBOROUGH GENTRY AND CLERGY, IS

ton, and from Morton we sped away to Thonock Hall, the seat of old Miss Hickman, the lady of the manor, and heiress of Sir Neville George Hickman, Bart

Money was always given to us, and, at some Jiouses, bread and cheese and beer. I cannot say we always shared alike in what was thus kindly given ; for I remember how, one severe snowy season, the big lads who carried the money-box persuaded some of us, who were weak and shivering with cold, to go home with a very few halfpence each, while they went on, and roguishly kept the larger share of the money for themselves. Fear of punishment, however, usually kept the big lads tolerably honest.

Twice in the year, Easter and Michaelmas, we were examined in our catechism by the vicar, preparatory to repeating it in the church, in presence of the congregation. We had given us a shilling, each, on these occasions, and always received smiles and kind words from the vicar. I well remember that we all esteemed Doctor Parnell and Parson Fothergill, with their grand powdered heads, and stately bearing, to be the two most veritable and genuine gentlemen in Gainsborough, albeit some wicked people said of the reverend vicar, that he was the best judge of the quality of a bottle of port, the best hand at loo or whist, and the best patron of the play and the ball-room, in the whole town. His curate, Mr. Pridham, was a stern Evangelical, and preached openly against the vicar's tastes, without naming him; but the vicar let the curate l6 HEARING ORGAN AND PLAYING DULCIMER.

preach on, year after year, without remonstrance, and without forsaking his own favourite habits.

One little step of preferment that I obtained during the last year I was a Bluecoat boy, was a source of both pride and pleasure. I was chosen, with half adozen other boys, to join the choir in the church ; and my place was now no longer on the low benches in the middle aisle, but in the church gallery, close to the organ. I could thus see the large church oi^an played, as well as hear it ; and how I wondered at the changing face of the organist, young Mr. Hand — a great musical enthusiast — as he touched the keys ! The other boys laughed at him — but I could not

My preferment to the singing-loft had a more important result. It brought to our house the father of the organist, old Mr. Hand, a gentlemanly person, though he had a wooden leg. He was a great player on the dulcimer. The instrument was soon brought to our house ; and I became so enamoured of it, that my mother eventually purchased it for thirty shillings. A few lessons, by the ear, I had from the old gentleman ; and soon was able to play, by the ear, any tune I knew, or 'heard sung or played in the street. How often I have wished that the dulcimer had been a violin, or a pianoforte, and that I had been taught music by the notes,— had been taiight to read music at that age. Such wishes are vain ; but I have them, and of various forms. — " Oh that I had been trained to music — or painting — or law — or medicine — or any

GAINSBOROUGH MART, AND THE WAR. 1/

firofession in which mind is needed ; or that I had been regularly educated, so that I might have reached a University ! " — =1 say, I often catch myself at these wishes still — even at sixty-six ; but they ar6 not so fervent as they were some years ago — for I remember that life here will soon end with me.

I have many pleasant remembrances of the time that we lived in the house in front of Sailor's Alley. Miller — my close companion — ^began, like myself, to cut shapes in paper, and to draw and colour. Our greatest incitement to drawing was the exhibition of pictures on the outside of the wild-beast shows at the Mart — a festival which occurs at Gainsborough twice in the year, Easter and Michaelmas. To run and look at these pictures, and come home, and imitate the figures of elephants, lions, tigers, leopards, zebras, and gorgeously-coloured tropical birds, formed a busy occupation for Miller and myself, during each Mart week ; and to copy and improve upon our pictures was an enthusiastic employment for many weeks after.

These years — ^from 1811 to 18 14 — ^were among the hottest of the war period. And while our little town was kept in perpetual ferment by the news of battles, and the street would be lined with people to see old Matthew Goy, the postman, ride in with his hat covered with ribbons, and blowing his horn mightily, as he bore the news of some fresh victory, — Ciudad Rodrigo, or Badajoz, or Salamanca, or Vittoria, or St. Sebastian, or Toulouse, — Miller and I were pencilling

I8 MEMORIES OF EARLY PLAYMATES.

soldiers and horses, or, imaginarily, Wellington and * Boney ' — for we never heard tKe word " Napoleon,*' at that time of day.

For our animal-drawing, we had another stimulus, in aged Abraham Haxby, who lodged with Miller's mother, and who had, in his youth, been a soldier in the war against the Dutch, in India. He used to tell us most delectable tales about elephants and tigers ; nor were his descriptions of guavas, bananas, figs, jacks, and cashew-apples — ^your hat full for the value of a farthing ! — less delicious. Miller and I often vowed we would go to that grand fruit country when we grew to be men !

Another companion was Job Holland. Job was a very simple, honest, good-natured lad, older than myself, and had no taste congenial with mine, save that of bird-nesting. Indeed, it was Job who taught me to love that delightful recreation ; delightful, not so much for itself, as for the adventures and wanderings connected with it. With Job, and soon with others, I rambled over every field and lane, hill and wood, within three miles of Gainsborough. Saturday afternoons, and the long evenings in the season, were usually devoted to these rambles, except when my mother restrained me.

From George Wimble, whose father was a fisherman and herb-gatherer, I learned the names of agrimony, and wood-betony, and wood-sage, and mountain-ilax, and centaury, and other herbs which

MY UNCLE LUKE, AND HIS COTTAGE. 19

were to be found in the neighbourhood, and were used as medicines, by the poor. But I often longed to know the names of flowers, which none could tell ; for I gathered, fondly, every wild-flower in its season — a delicious pleasure, which, thank God ! is fresh with me still, now age is reached, and I am familiar with the forms and know the names of every English flower.

In the autumn season, two or three weeks of gleaning holidays were usually granted to the Free School children. These weeks I usually spent at Market Rasen, a small town in Lindsey, twenty-one miles from Gainsborough, with my uncle, Luke Jobson, my mother's brother. He rented some twenty-four acres of land, under Squire Tennyson of Tealby ; and also followed the occupation of a weekly carrier, as did his father, Luke Jobson, before him — his father, Luke Jobson, whose father Henry Jobson, was an innkeeper at Northampton. I can go no higher with my genealogy on the maternal side.

How vividly the picture of my uncle Luke's large thatched cottage, at Market Rasen, remains in my memory ! The outer room had a wide open chimney. My uncle's arm-chair was under it, and you could see the swallows' nests in the chimney, as you sat in the chair. On the chimney-front hung a curious old picture, painted on oak — displaying a cat playing bagpipes to dancing mice, in one corner, and a gamester, shaped like an ape, playing at cards with clowns, in another. Above was the legend : —

20 VISION OF THE GLOWWORMS.

^ Gamesters and puss alike doe watch, And plaie with those they aime toe catch.^

In the inner room, or parlour, was a heavy antique clock; and on the walls hung the "Twelve Golden Rules of Good King Charles," and " Death and the Lady," a long, serious dialogue in verse.

In my uncle's fields, and on the adjoining moors, I saw wild birds, and wild four-footed creatures in abundance ; weasels, ferrets, fomarts, moles, hedgehogs, were often taken, and owls and hawks shot. The kestrel often hovered overhead ; and now and then the glede, or kite, would soar aloft. The country was wilder at that time of day ; and, of course, fuller of interest to me, in the centre of Lindsey, than it was at the Trent border.

The ride in the carrier's cart, too, between Rasen and Gainsborough, had its delights. One time, we set off from Rasen late at night, and drew up in an open field, sometime before the morning broke, to let the horses graze a little. I have a most lively recollection of awaking in the cart, and looking out in amazement at what seemed to be hundreds of small, dull, strangelooking lights, scattered over the wide field. My uncle told me they were glowworms ; and he had never seen so many together before. Nor have I ever had such a vision of wonder as that, since boyhood.

Each Friday in the week — the day that my uncle came to Gainsborough as weekly carrier — I was closely attendant upon him, when school hours were over.

SHOWER OF LIVE FROCa 21

having to read the directions on his letters and parcels — ^for he was never put to school ; and to his dying day " Knew never a letter i' the book, save round O," as he used to say. He made much of me (I again use the old Lincolnshire language, for I love it !) ; always gave me a few coppers for my writing paper, lead pencils, and water-colours ; and, indeed, showed every disposition to indulge me. I thus became greatly attached to him ; and to the present moment regard his memory — ^plain, unlettered man, though he was — with fondest affection. I think I ought not to dismiss his humble name without saying that in his manhood he was strong and handsome, and was a pattern of industry. He had contrived to hoard up three hundred spade-ace guineas in a stocking-foot ; but from illness in the close of life did not advance in wealth, yet he left a small property to be divided by his heirs.

My mention of the strange vision of the field of glowworms reminds me of another natural phenomenon I witnessed when a boy. I saw a shower of live frogs, I record this, because I have read, not only in that beautiful old book of Ray's, " The Wisdom of God in the Creation," but in later books affecting great fidelity to facts in science, that such a sight is impossible. I am as sure of what I relate as I am of my own existence. The minute frogs, jumping alive, fell on the pavement at our feet, and came tumbling down the spouts from the tiles of the houses into the water-tubs.

23 LOVE OF " PILGRIM'S PROGRESS."

CHAPTER HI.

boyhood: GAINSBOROUGH MEMORIES: 1814— 1816.

The happiest hours of all I had in early years were spent alone, and with books. When childhood was past, and I ceased to feel so much absorbed in the Fables, and little story books, the immortal " Pilgrim's Progress " was my book of books. What hours of wonder and rapture I passed with Bunyan when a boy ! He was always new ; and though a " number-man," or travelling-bookseller, kindly left me his curiosities, now and then, because my eagerness interested him, I returned with increased relish to Christian and Faithful, Great Heart and Giant Despair, after reading odd numbers of Baines's " History of the War," and " Pamela," and " The Earl of Moreland ; " and the stories of Turpin and Nevison, the famous highwaymen, and Bampfylde Moore-Carew, the King of the Gipsies.

The first rhymes that I can remember to have read with a sense of delight were those of the old ballad of Chevy Chase. I used to repeat them, when alone, until they used to make me feel as warlike as did the

THE EXPEDITION TO LEA. 23

sight of Matthew Goy when he rode into the town with the news of a victory ; or the array of the Gainsborough Loyal Volunteers, when they marched through the town, on exercise-days,, to the sound of fife and drum.

Talking again of the War, reminds one, naturally, that it was followed by the Peace. The Peace 01 1814 — "the General Peace," as it was emphatically, called, — was celebrated in ambitious style at Gainsborough. There was a general holiday ; and there was a grand emblematical procession. A car, drawn by six horses, held figures representing Wellington, Blucher, Platoff, the Czar Alexander, and other high personages, together with the fallen emperor labelled ** Goin^ to Elba." There were bands of music in the streets, a thanksgiving sermon and anthems at church, and feasting parties at the inns, during the day ; with a gefteral illumination, bonfires, crackers, and squibs, at night.

The next day, Miller and I laid our young heads together, and enlisted Bob Mason, and Tom Aram, and Geoi^e Laister, and Joe Cawthrcy, and Joe Carver, and Bill Tyson, and Jack Barton, and George Wimble, and other lads we knew, to accompany us on an adventurous expedition to Lea, Papers were coloured and inscribed, and ribbons procured, and flags formed ; and away we went to Lea, to try our fortunes. I was " Wellington," and was so labelled on the front of my blue cap; and Miller was "Env^etot <aV

24 THE GOOD SIR CHARLES ANDERSON.

Russia ; *' and Mason was "Blucher; " and Jack Barton was " Prince Platoff; " and Joe Cawthrey was " General Salt" (Soult was always so named, in our .hearing); and Tom Aram (dear old Gatty's grandson) was

. " Buonaparte " (for, as I said before, we knew nothing of the name *' Napoleon " ) ; and the other lads were named after other military or regal celebrities.

We went to Squire Western's, and Farmer Swift's, and Farmer Ashford's, and Mr. Longden's, and Sir Charles Anderson's ; stood and sung " Awake, my soul, and with the sun," and " Glory to Thee, iny God, this night," and other hymns we had learned at school, or in the church; gave three cheers, after shouting *' Peace and Plenty ! God save the King ! " as we had heard them shout on the procession-day; and then one of us held his cap for coppers, with a low bow. We were well received. The beloved and venerated Sir Charles himself stood and smiled to hear us ; and called us " very good boys," as he gave us a real silver half-crown ! Many a time, in after-life, has some old playmate pleasurably reminded me of our boyish expedition to Lea, to celebrate the General Peace.

Bob Mason was a lad to whom Tom Miller and I were much attached ; and yet he was utterly unlike either of us. Tom and I were all for learning, and

^excitement, and for doing something to win fame; but Bob, from a child, was for trying to get money. I well remember the talk he raised in the town, and the wonder in our boyish circle, by one feat. Bob

BOB MASON, AND HIS COCKLES. 25

crept about the wharves by the Trent, picking up rags, bones, and bits of old iron to sell, until he became possessed of fourpence. He then begged his passage to Hull, a distance of fifty miles, in the sailing packet of that day ; bought a bag of cockles with the fourpence, begged his passage (and the carriage of the cockles) back to Gainsborough ; borrowed a wheelbarrow and a quartern "skep,** or measure, hawked his cockles about the town for sale, and realized half-acrown ! Bob could, not be nine years old at that time, for he was younger than Miller or myself.

Dear Bob ! I remember well how our friendship suffered a lapse by an unlucky incident. During a heavy snow season, I had made a large snow man, in Sailor's Alley, and he mischievously attempted to demolish it; when I suddenly struck him with a shovel I had in my hand, and with which I had been eagerly labouring. . He received the blow on his forehead, which immediately streamed with blood ; and I threw down the shovel, and grew sick with alarm, while neighbours ran out and clamorously threatened me with imprisonment and the gallows, and I know not what. Poor Bob's head was bound up for a week ; and I remained in great trouble, and wept daily in repentance and fear till he grew well.

I had deeper troubles than this, let me say, during these years of boyhood, notwithstanding their many pleasant recollections. My dear mother had all along hard work to get a decent living, and pay bst ^^^»

26 STARVATION AND THE TAX-GATHERER.

Rent, and taxes, bad harvests and dear bread, rendered it difficult for her to make a livelihood. At one time wheaten flour rose to six shillings per stone, and we tried to live on barley cakes, which brought on a burning, gnawing pain at the stomach. For two seasons the com was spoiled in the fields, with wet ; and, when the winter came, we could scoop out the middle of the soft, distasteful loaf ; and to eat it brought on sickness. Meat was so dear that my mother could not buy it ; and often our dinner consisted of potatoes only. We were glad, indeed, when, in the dreadful win^wer of 1 8 13-14, Mr. Maw, Mr. Bowen, Mr. Palian, and a few other benevolent Quakers, started a subscription, which was joined by the gentry and wealthier tradesmen; and soup, biscuits, potatoes, and red-herrings, were served out, gratuitously, twice or thrice a week to the poor.

There was a tax-gatherer, too, at that time,, who had a bad reputation for oppressing the poor, by going beyond the rigour of the law ; and for lawless connection with women whom, it was said, he favoured, in advising the Parish Vestry to make them improper sharers in various old charities. This oppression was often spoken of very bitterly by my mother and Miller's mother, as we heard them whispering of his temptations, while they sat with their pipes at tl\e fire. Miller's mother had seen better circumstances ; but she was now a widow, and had to sew sacks for Brumby's factory. She worked early and late for

THE TAX-GATHERER OUTWITTED. 2/

bread for herself and her two boys ; but would run in now and then, at the back door, and join my mother for a few whiffs at the pipe. And then away they would go again to work, after cheering each other to go stoutly through the battle of life.

They bent their wits, on one occasion, to disappoint the tax-gatherer. He was to " distrain " on a certain day ; but beds, chairs, and tables, were moved secretly in the night to blind Thomas Chatterton's ; and when the tax-gatherer came next day to execute his threat, there was nothing left worth his taking. The poor were often driven to such desperate schemes to save all they had from ruin, in those days ; and the curse upon taxes and the tax-gatherer was in the mouths of hundreds — for those years of war were terrific years of suffering for the poor, notwithstanding their shouts and rejoicings when Matthew Goy rode in, with ribbons flying, bringing the news of another "glorious victory! "

Sometimes Miller's mother and mine were excused paying some of the taxes by appealing to the magistrates, a fe^v of whom respected them for their industry, and commiserated their hardships. But the petition did not always avail. Sir Charles Anderson of Lea, William Hutton, Esq., of Gate Burton, and Gervase Woodhouse, Esq., of Owston, were protectors of the poor ; but the other magistrates were inexorable in enforcing the law, and the letter of it One can •carcely wonder at this, considering Vioti V^e^cvrj >Jafc

28 MEMORIES OF THE RIVER TRENT.

pressure of taxes must have been in those expensive years ; and how loudly some would have complained if all were not constrained to join in bearing the burden of war.

My poor mother waged war stoutly with difficulties during these years. She not only made rounds with her boxes to the surrounding villages, but walked weekly with them to the market at Epworth, in the Isle of Axholme, where she also took in goods to dye. I began now to go longer journeys with her ; and twice or thrice, during fine weather, she took me all the way to Epworth — a distance of twelve miles ; and a journey of wonders it seemed to me, for we had to cross the river Trent in the ferry-boat, at Stockwith, and to walk some miles along the bank of the river;' and we saw sea-gulls, and a heron — a something to talk of!

I cannot dismiss this part of my boyish history without recording a few other reminiscences of that glorious Trent. I and my young companions used sometimes to bathe, not in the wide stream, but in a little arm of it, at Ash Croft, a part of the marsh called Humble Carr, in which lies "Can'dish Bog," the spot where Cromwell pistolled young Colonel Cavendish, and beat his troop. The young royalist hero has a monument, with a stone lion at his feet, in the neighbouring little church at Lea. I was ever a timid bather, and never learned to swim ; but I remember how cheerily and boldly many of the boys took to the

THE HEYGRE, AND THE GREAT FROST. 29

water, and how the greater number of these became sailors.

The shipping-trade of Gainsborough was great at that time. There was not a busier scene on a small scale in England, than the loading and unloading of vessels on the Trent in those years. Numerous large brigs, and many sloops and keels, with a great number of " ketches," or flat-bottomed boats from Staffordshire, crowded the river. Sailors enlivened the streets of the little town by their merriment ; and the whole living appearance of the town presented a very pleasing contrast to the dulness and desertion of trade which have characterised it since railways destroyed the trade on the river.

The " Heygre " was our great excitement on the Trent It used to be a very stirring sight when the tide was at the full. The huge rolling waves then dashed the shipping from their moorings, if they were not well moored and managed ; and boats were often crushed to pieces. The capture of porpoises on the river sometimes raised a crowd on the banks and at the wharves, to see the sailors signalise their courage and activity. But the most striking incident, in my recollection, connected with the Trent, was the breaking-up of the ice, after the thirteen weeks* frost, in 18 14, during which waggons loaded with coal had been drawn over the ice, and a bullock roasted on it. The breaking-up came in a moment, and shook the town. For a whole day and night, the broken pieces of thick ice

30 THE PRESS-GANG, AND THE PEACE.

rushed through the arches of the bridge, putting people in fear that the whole structure would give way ; and, with the roar of thunder, the ice tore away past the town, driving many a stout vessel from its moorings and dashing many a small boat to pieces ! And then came the great flood which extended for miles over the marshes, and covered that part of the street in which we lived for two or three weeks — during which time Miller and I had a constrained holiday, and drew on paper the men and boats, as we looked out of our chamber window, for the lower floors were ail flooded.